I’ve been struggling with promoting our conference: Embracing the Burnout on 12/11/21 (Please come). I’m genuinely excited about it, and I’m genuinely scared no one will come. Weirdly, I’m not very scared that if people come they won’t get value from it. So if I believe that people will get a lot out of it if they come, why don’t I want to talk about it?
It’s hard to do things that matter. It feels both vulnerable and pushy. Look, here is my baby, I’m saying. It is beautiful and ugly, and needy, and loving, and maybe if we all come together and nurture it, it will grow up and change the world.
Why should it be my baby we nurture? Who am I to have a baby? Aren’t there enough babies in the world?
No, there are not enough babies in the world. There are a lot of people who could build something beautiful and meaningful who are gate-kept out of it. I don’t think my baby should be made instead of other people’s babies. I think my baby should be made along with other people’s babies and for other people’s babies.
If you have something beautiful and fragile and powerful you are working on, I invite you to come tomorrow and get support for working on it. And if you can’t come tomorrow, or if you are reading this after 12/11/21, that’s ok. We will do more conferences, events, and connecting. What is it that you need a space for? How can we help you build that space? What are you so invested in it’s hard to get enough distance to work on? That thing is why we are making Versatackle.
I believe in what we are doing. I also know that it is only meaningful and powerful if what we are doing is what other people want and need. I don’t want the world we create to be my vision of the world. I want it to be ours. All of ours. Especially the voices that haven’t been heard enough. I hope you can come tomorrow and think about that vision with us. What is making the work you are doing harder right now? How can we help? If you come tomorrow, you will get support for what you need. I truly believe that. Please come and find it. We need you. We love you. We want to love your baby, too.
